


Something Else

by toothandpaw



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: AU, Angst, Baby!Fic, Drama, F/M, Fluff, Reunion!fic, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-06
Updated: 2014-02-06
Packaged: 2018-01-11 08:45:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,511
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1171050
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/toothandpaw/pseuds/toothandpaw
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Time never seemed to be on their side, but sometimes the Universe gave them a break.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Something Else

**Author's Note:**

> Unabashed, angsty, fluffy baby!/reunion!fic.

Rose laid her head back against the slightly stiff pillow behind her, eyes falling shut of their own accord as she gulped down air. She fought to keep her eyelids from closing completely, instead focusing on the soft cries that somehow cut through the buzzing around the rest of the room. Just when she thought she was going to lose the battle with exhaustion, a nurse placed a squirming, fussy bundle of blankets and bright pink skin into her arms. Automatically, Rose held it as though it would evaporate at any moment.  
  
"Hello, little one," she murmured, and almost instantly the fussing quiets a little. She smiled at the baby in her arms. "I'm so happy to finally meet you. I've waited a long time. We all have. I can't wait for everyone else to meet you, too. You'll be spoilt before I can even blink, I'm sure." She chuckled.  
  
As the noise in the room began to die down, another nurse approached her. "Shall I give you a minute alone before letting your family in?"  
  
Rose nodded, but refused to take her eyes off the baby. "Thanks."  
  
When they were the only two left in the room, she spoke again. "You're perfect. You look just like your dad, hair and everything. Though you did get my nose, which is good because he always loved my nose. Said it was perfect, and looking at it on you, I think he's right." She felt tears welling up and she tried in vain to blink them away. "I wish he could see you, see how...perfect you are. Oh, if he knew... You need to know he'd move heaven and earth to see you right now. I know he would. I also know that he would love you more than anything in the whole universe - in all of creation, little one. Never forget that, got it?"  
  
Rose sniffled, letting a few tears carve rivers down her face for a moment before collecting herself enough to nurse her daughter and mentally prepare herself for the arrival of her family.  
  


* * *

  
Jackie insisted on Pete and her driving Rose home from the Torchwood mini-hospital just a few days later. Too exhausted and in no good position to argue, she conceded, and later found herself in the back seat of the family Range Rover squished up close to her daughter's car seat. She couldn't tear her gaze from her sleeping baby the whole way home, not even when Jackie tried to start conversation.  
  
It hurt that the Doctor couldn't be there to share in the joy of their little girl. It hurt more than she ever imagine it would, which was quite an achievement. Even with her mum and Pete and Mickey and Jake around to help her, she still felt like a tiny island in the midst of a raging hurricane - a feeling that she couldn't shake.  
  
With a heavy sigh, she climbed out of the Rover once they reached the mansion. She silently thanked whoever invented the car-seat-baby-carrier as she easily carried the awkward contraption up the drive and through the front door, despite the fact that her muscles still protested any sort of movement. She stopped at the sofa in the sitting room, mostly because she didn't think she could get her body any further, but partly because she could really use a cuddle and she knew the little girl would be hungry soon.  
  
Once she had her fill and the excess air had been patted out of her, Rose settled the little girl against her chest, her head tucked just under her mother's chin, as Rose stretched out over the cushions, back supported by the arm quite nicely. Her eyes had just started to slide shut and her body had just started to really relax when she heard her mum's slightly apologetic call from the doorway. "Rose, darlin'."  
  
"What is it, Mum?" she replied tiredly, refusing to open her eyes.  
  
"I think– There's– Oh, for the love of– I think someone's here to see you."  
  
"Can you please tell them I'm taking a nap right now?"  
  
She heard her mother let out a small noise she couldn't quite decipher. "I think you'll really want to see them."  
  
Reluctantly, Rose opened her eyes and threw Jackie a look. The woman just lifted an eyebrow and nodded towards the back of the house before disappearing back through the door. With a small grunt, she managed to get herself off the couch without waking the baby, a feat she was rather proud of, actually. It was at her own slow pace that she made her way through the mansion to the sliding back doors off of the family dining room. It lead out to the ample back garden, where Rose-the-dog liked to play and dig in the flower beds, and where the groundskeepers did a very nice job of keeping the lush green grass immaculate.  
  
Though there was something off about it, that day. For a moment, she couldn't figure it out, but then, in a sudden realization, she knew. Where she not holding her daughter, her hands would have flown to her mouth and she probably would have crumpled to the ground to sob. There, standing just a few hundred metres away, was the TARDIS, a beautiful blue sight for tired and sore eyes. "It can't be," she whispered.  
  
"Rose." She nearly jumped out of her skin as she whipped around to face the man she'd missed and mourned and craved for months. The Doctor–her Doctor–their Doctor, was there, standing on the terrace just feet away. He looked more haggard than he had on the beach, and there was something more haunting about his eyes, but he was there and he was staring at her as though she was the key to the universe. "Rose."  
  
"Doctor," she managed to choke out before her face crumbled and she let out a sob. He ran to her, carefully throwing his arms around both of them and embracing them tenderly. "I missed you so much," she sobbed into the lapel of his signature pinstriped jacket.  
  
"Oh, Rose," he whispered in her ear, cradling the back of her head. "I missed you too. More than anything." After a quiet minute, he pulled back and turned his attention to the sleeping little girl in his Rose's arms. "And who is this?"  
Blinking away the last remnants of her tears, she glanced from him to her, slightly bashful. "This is Alcyone." He stared with his mouth open just slightly. "Brightest star and all, yeah?" She let out a watery chuckle.  
  
"And she's...?" Rose nodded, cheeks slightly pink. "But you said–"  
  
"I knew you'd do something rash if I told you the truth. For the sake of the universes."  
  
He shook his head, but a smile was already growing on his face. "Rose Tyler, you are... something else." Tenderly, he swiped a thumb across the baby's cheek. "She has your nose."  
  
Rose almost barked out a laugh. "Your hair, though."  
  
He hummed, taking in every feature of their little girl he could. "I was gone for a long time then," he murmured after what seemed like hours.  
  
"Thirteen months."  
  
His head snapped up. "Thirteen? Thirteen? Rose, you were-"  
  
"About two months gone when I got stuck. Half Time Lord babies take a long time–longer than I ever thought. I knew, though. About her. Was just... waiting for a good time to tell you, and then..."  
  
And then he was kissing her. It held everything they wanted to say to each other and promised the future, and only ended when Alcyone began to fuss between them.  
  


* * *

  
She didn't pretend to understand the mechanics of it, but somehow the Doctor had managed to make it so they could travel back and forth through the rift without causing permanent damage to either side (something about a loophole and a biogenerator and three pints of hypervodka). Though the three of them left her family and friends in London, Rose was comforted by the fact that they could visit whenever they wanted without fear of catastrophe.  
The TARDIS, as gracious and kind as ever, provided them with everything they needed for the baby before they even passed the console room, and then added more once they got settled. A cradle sat next to their bed, a changing table and rocker in the corner, and bottles appeared whenever he was the one to get up for a middle-of-the-night feeding.  
  
Alcy thrived, much to the delight of her parents. The Doctor was constantly praising her telepathic ability, however small it was (she was only a baby, after all), and Rose was amazed by how quickly she was growing. She was a fussy baby, prone to short bouts of wails at all hours of the day and night, but between them and the TARDIS, she was always taken care of.  
  
Much to Rose's dismay, by five months, she was up and crawling. By six months, she was walking. By seven, she was running (the Doctor found it hysterical). By eight months, she was able to spout words, and by nine she was starting to grasp the concept of sentence structure.  
  
"I didn't know– I didn't think–" Rose hiccuped one night, face buried in the thin cotton of the Doctor's vest. "She's just...too fast, and I– I can't–" Sobs drowned out whatever it was she was going to say.  
  
"I know, Rose, I know," he murmured, running his hand up and down her back soothingly, his other arm holding her tightly to him. "But it will slow in the next few months, be a bit more like a human's. She won't fully grasp language until she's three and probably won't read until then."  
  
"But I was there the whole time and I feel like I missed so much!"  
  
To that he wasn't sure what to say.  
  


* * *

  
She shut herself in her room after that, her old room. She tossed herself down onto the old mattress, still covered in hot pink bed clothes from before she and the Doctor shared a room, and shut her eyes, letting the ache wash over her like a tsunami. Her chest felt as though someone had physically bound it and her stomach flipped more than she had in her under seven's days. After only ten minutes of lying there, she had to scramble to the en suite so she could toss up all that remained of what she'd eaten the day before and then dry heave until she thought her inside would come out her mouth.  
  
When her body gave up trying to expel invisible waste, she curled up on the rug in front of the toilet, unable to gather the strength to get back up to go back to the bed. Numbly she stared at the wall, wanting to cry but fresh out of tears. She wanted the Doctor. She wanted her mum. She wanted her baby back. Where had she gone? How could Rose have missed so much?  
  
“Rose?” she heard from a distance. She found she couldn't reply–or perhaps her body just didn't want her to. May as well leave me here now, she thought. She was startled by that, but it wasn't like she could take it back.  
  
She heard her name again and shifted her head a little so she could at least see the door to the bedroom. “If you don't answer in the next three seconds, I'm coming in.” She didn't respond.  
  
She wasn't sure how long it was until she felt someone touch her shoulder. She opened her eyes wearily, wondering vaguely when she'd closed them. She shifted her gaze from the toilet in front of her to the man who had one hand on her shoulder, the other cupping her cheek. “What's wrong?” She blinked at him, but couldn't get any words out. “Rose, talk to me,” he pleaded, pulling her up to lean her side against his chest. “Please.”  
  
Instinctively, she buried her face in his stiff suit jacket and clutched the opposite lapel in her right hand. He rocked her back and forth as they did with Alcy. Her shoulders shuddered with dry, aching sobs. “She– She–” was all she could manage.  
  
“Who, love? Who?”  
  
“A-Alcy. She– She's g-growing too– too f-fast.”  
  
The Doctor only squeezed her closer, still rocking her. She felt him press his lips to the top of her head and heard a short string of Gallifreyan she couldn't understand, but recognized. She choked out another sob into his suit. “Oh Rose,” he murmured. “I don't know what you want me to say. I have this whole speech I could give you on the mechanics of growing Gallifreyan children and then another on the growth patters of human children, but I'm sure that those are the last things you want to talk about. You've always said I could talk for all of Britain, but right now I seem to be at a loss for the right ones. Do you want me to comfort you? Do you want me to tell you that everything will be alright? I don't know. I don't like reading your thoughts without your permission. But if I know you like I think I know you, Rose Tyler, you probably just want me to shut my gob, which is fair because it does tend to get me–well, I say me, but really I mean both of us–into trouble every now and again. Before I do and take you back to bed for a good cuddle and a nap–you still sleep like you used to, by the way and that is wonderful, Rose–I just wanted to say...” He shifted her slightly so his mouth rested on the shell of her ear. “I love you. And Alcy loves you. Her growing up won't ever change that.”  
  
She let out another sob, but nodded against him. True to his word he stood, somehow managing to hold her as he rose, and carried her out into her room. He didn't stop, however, until he got to the room they shared where he deposited her gently over the duvet and curled up along side her, gliding his hand up and down her arm. She snuggled closer, wrapping her arms around him as best she could and holding on for dear life.  
  
Some time later, she heard little feet run into the room and felt the Doctor shift next to her. Wordlessly, he lifted the little girl onto the bed. “Mummy sad,” she stated, pointing and her mother before plopping herself down in the space that had been made between them. Her parents glanced at her. How had she–? “No want sad, Mummy.” Alcy laid down and tucked herself into the crook of Rose's neck, arms wrapped around her very much like a baby monkey. Rose glanced up to see the Doctor watching them, a soft smile claiming his face, then down at her daughter, who had closed her eyes and started to fall sleep, cheek pressed against Rose's chest. She kissed the top of Alcy's head.  
  


* * *

  
“Will it always be that hard?” she asked one night the following month.  
  
He looked up from the book he'd been reading, frowning slightly, brows creased. “Will what be hard?”  
  
She didn't look at him. “Pregnancy. Will it always be as hard as it was?”  
  
The Doctor put the book down on the bedside table, turning to face her fully. He patted his legs, urging her to sit between them. She did so and was immediately greeted with his talented hands kneading the knots out of her shoulders and back. She leaned into his touch, biting back a moan that threatened to overtake her.  
  
He didn't say anything for a while, just massaged her sore muscles. “I'm not sure,” he admitted, eventually.  
  
“That's a first,” she muttered, letting out a small laugh. He nudged her gently, but that only made her laugh a little more.  
  
“There weren't many cases of Gallifreyan-human procreation and the ones that existed were generally kept quiet. The nobles and big wigs wanted to keep our race more or less pure, meaning interspecies relationships were frowned upon for the most part.”  
  
“Always were a rule breaker, weren't you?” she mused, smiling a little.  
  
He chuckled. “A bit, yeah. Anyway, there's not much of a record kept on that sort of thing. And besides, you're something else, Rose. Not another like you.”  
  
Her brows contracted, wrinkling her forehead. “What, you mean like Bad Wolf?”  
  
He hummed. “Strictly speaking, I don't think you and I could really be compatible if you were fully, 100 percent human. I mean, it's a possibility I suppose, but I doubt that your DNA would want to mingle with my TNA without some sort of help.”  
  
“So, what, Bad Wolf made it possible for us to... have babies?”  
  
“That's the theory. She was doing us a favour and we didn't even know it.”  
  
“Remind me to thank her,” Rose chuckled, then moaned as his thumbs untangled a particularly stubborn know near the base of her back. “But... Do you think it will be?”  
  
“I really don't know. Why?” She shrugged. “Do you want to... have another?”  
  
Her breath caught in her throat. Hearing it out loud was far different from hearing it in her head. “Never mind. Forget it. Forget I said anything,” she said, hastily shifting away from him.  
  
He caught her shoulders. “Rose wait. Hold on a mo'.” She stopped and stared at their legs. “Look at me.” She felt his finger under her chin guide her to face him. Her eyes shone a little more than she wanted them to and she realised she was far more nervous than she ought to be. It was just the Doctor.  
But then again, it was their future.  
  
“Do you really want another baby?” he asked quietly.  
  
She bit her bottom lip hard, glancing away. “Yeah,” it came out only as a whisper.  
  
“Yeah?”  
  
“Sort of, yeah,” she replied, this time stronger.  
  
“What does that mean, 'sort of'?” She was impressed that their initiative to communicate had come that far, him asking for clarification instead of assuming.  
  
She sighed. “Only if you do. ...want a baby, that is.” He stared at her for a long time, a look of awe stuck on his face. “Please say something.”  
  
At her words, a grin spread across his face like wildfire, his eyes lighting up. “Oh Rose,” he said, cupping the back of her head, “of course I do.”  
  
And then their lips were pressed against each other.

* * *

  
The TARDIS was the first to know.  
  
One morning almost three months after their conversation, a pregnancy test appeared in their loo when Rose scurried in to use it. She frowned and glanced at the room around her, then out to the empty bedroom, but used it anyway. She was a little surprised at the result–positive–but nonetheless happy with it.  
  
She left it on the vanity for him to find later while she dressed and took off to find where their daughter had no doubt wandered off to.  
The two were playing in the trampoline room when he appeared, the little girl shrieking with excitement as she ran from one end the other, jostling Rose just a little as she passed–though she pretended to get knocked over just for her daughter's amusement. “Daddy!” she yelled and launched herself at him. Clearly she hadn't inherited Rose's gymnastics genes, rather the Doctor's clumsiness as she banged her lip into his knee. Her face crumpled immediately as her hand shot up to her face, and she wailed in pain.  
  
“Come on, sweetheart, let's go to the infirmary and get you all better, yeah?” Rose said, scooping her up with practiced skill. She gestured for him to follow with her head.  
  
When Alcy's split lip was taken care of and she was content to take a nap after the afternoon's excitement, the Doctor led his pink and yellow human to their favourite corner of the library. He sat her down on the sofa and knelt before her. She furrowed her eyebrows, but chuckled in amusement as he seemed to scramble for words. “Is it true?”  
  
“Is what true?” she retorted coyly, sticking her tongue between her teeth.  
  
“Are you really...?” He placed a hand on her midsection.  
  
“Am I really what, Doctor?”  
  
“Pregnant?”  
  
His eyes were wide and shining with hope, the same look he got every time she teased him about finding a tree that produced banana marmalade. The thought made her giggle, but she nodded anyway. Immediately, she was knocked back as he snogged her senseless.  
  


* * *

  
Unlike when she was pregnant with Alcy, this time she had morning sickness worse than the Trenuian Dog Flu and the strangest cravings at all the wrong times. She spent most of the day bent over the toilet, and the rest of it craving salmon and caramel biscuits covered in holinst from the Eighth Moon of Poosh. The Doctor, for his part, was good about it. He held back her hair, made her food, and held back their little girl when she needed time to relax. The TARDIS was also a huge help. She provided anything and everything Rose needed that she could. Some of the more extreme things the Doctor had to get, but the ship at least landed in the right places to get them.  
  
Alcyone was beyond excited for the arrival of her little sibling. The Doctor had been right in that her growth had slowed significantly, but that didn't stop her from going off on tangents in very broken English about what she wanted her baby brother or sister to be like. She spent many afternoons snuggled up with Rose on the big bed so they could take their naps together, more so when Rose got to the second half of her pregnancy.  
  
It was just as long as it had been with Alcy and just as taxing on her body, but it seemed just a little easier with the Doctor and the TARDIS to take care of her and Alcy to keep her company when her mate was off saving the universe–by himself, to her annoyance. She missed the old team, saving the universe together, but she couldn't begrudge him for leaving her behind, especially when she could barely walk, let alone run. It was the subject of numerous arguments and complaints, but in the end, they mutually agreed it was a better idea for Rose to at least stay close to the TARDIS if not stay inside in the more dangerous outings.  
  
She spent nearly two days in labour, holed up on a rather comfortable bed in the infirmary–not that she really noticed all that much. Before she really progressed, the Doctor made sure he stopped off in her original universe to pick up Jack, Martha, and Donna, who had travelled with them on and off, before landing in Pete's World so Rose's family–and Mickey and Jake–could be there as well. Jackie made herself comfortable in a chair next to Rose's bed while Donna and Martha checked in every once in a while and the men breezed in and out when they thought it would be “safe,” as Mickey so eloquently put it.  
  
The birth itself was miraculously easier than Alcy's, but nonetheless uncomfortable and downright awful. Not to mention it was longer. She nearly took off her mother's hand she squeezed it so tightly, but in the end the little boy came into the world kicking and screaming, chased fairly closely by his sister, who was far quieter, scaring all four adults in the room. While Martha dealt with the afterbirth and Jackie took care of the boy, the Doctor took care of their daughter, eventually coaxing pitiful wails out of her, much to everyone's relief.  
  
For the following hour the room was a flurry of motion and excitement. Alcy appeared and snuggled up next to her mum, careful not to jostle her sore muscles. The rest of the crew piled in not long after, all cooing over the babies while Rose looked on, tiredly. The thankfully sleeping twins were passed around from one person to another like the bread basket at supper, much to the Doctor's disgruntlement. If he had it his way, no one would be there, and their babies would be allowed to sleep in peace, but he knew better than to go against Rose's wishes–and Jackie's.  
  
“You haven't told us their names yet,” Donna said after a long while.  
  
“Edmund Alexander and Julia Morgen Tyler,” Rose answered quietly, leaning against the pillows, eyes closed.  
  
“Alright everyone, let's give them a rest,” Jackie said, hopping up from her perch. Rose shot her a grateful look, to which the older woman only smiled. “Come on Alcy, let's get you changed for bed. You can stop in to say goodnight later, yeah?”  
  
The little girl obviously looked unhappy, but took Jackie's hand with a resigned, “'kay.” Rose, arms full of a stirring Julia, closed her eyes again as the Doctor sat down on the empty space beside her.  
  
“They'll be hungry the minute I fall asleep,” she muttered, leaning her forehead on his shoulder.  
  
He chuckled. “That is the way it seems to go, isn't it?” She blinked her eyes open to watch him with their son. Edmund was blessedly still and asleep–unlike is fussing sister–and the Doctor was holding him as if he were the single most lovely thing he'd ever seen. That thought alone made Rose's heart skip a beat. She'd missed the chance to see him with Alcyone when she was first born, and though she regretted that, seeing him with Edmund now was almost enough to make up for it. “What?” he asked, glancing at her out of the side of his eyes.  
  
She shook her head, letting her eyes droop. “Nothing.”

* * *

 

The first few sniffles and grunts of an oncoming wail woke the both of them not a week later. Groaning, they both peeked one eye open and looked at each other.  
  
“Eddie,” Rose said.  
  
“Julia,” the Doctor countered.  
  
They stared at each other for a minute before Rose finally got up and made her way to the cradles standing against the foot of their bed. Glancing into both, she swiftly picked up the fussy one and brought them back to where she'd been not a minute earlier. “Eddie,” she repeated, making herself comfortable in the pile of pillows the Doctor had arranged for her. He grunted, handing her an extra so she could prop him up a little so she could nurse him without really having to hold him much for an extended period of time.  
  
She was burping the little boy over her shoulder when she heard him speak. She jumped a little–she thought he was asleep. “I love you,” he said simply, pressing a kiss just above her elbow.  
  
She smiled, softly. “I love you, too.”


End file.
